Thinking

Close your eyes. You'll still know which brand this is.

Sonic branding is the deliberate use of sound to do a logo's job. How Netflix, McDonald's and Mastercard chose their sound, and a simple test for your brand.

#brand strategy#verbal identity#tagline

Does your brand actually need a tagline?

Does my brand need a tagline? Usually no. Only 6% of slogans are truly distinctive. Here is the honest test that tells you whether yours does any work.

#brand strategy#rebranding#brand refresh

Coca-Cola and Tinder relaunched in the same week. Only one of them rebranded.

Brand refresh vs rebrand: Coca-Cola and Tinder relaunched in the same week and answered it. One fixed how it shows up. The other changed what it means.

#brand strategy#brand distinctiveness#craft

What makes a brand memorable is the thing it refused to simplify

What makes a brand memorable is rarely more polish. It is the one costly detail a brand refuses to simplify. Brompton, Royal Enfield and Le Labo show how.

#employer brand#employer branding#company culture

Your employer brand is whatever your last hire says at a party

Your employer brand is not the careers page. It is what your people say when nobody senior is listening. What Basecamp, Zappos and Timpson reveal about it.

#brand strategy#logo design#brand identity

Most logos are answers to the wrong question

Brand strategy vs logo design: why briefs that start with "make us a great logo" skip the decision that actually makes a mark work, with two real cases.

#brand strategy#verbal identity#tagline

If your competitor could run your tagline, you don't have one

What makes a good tagline? A decision your competitor couldn't copy. Avis, Marmite and a 99-year-old price promise show the test most brand lines fail.

#brand identity#Olympic branding#brand brief

Why the Alpes 2030 logo says nothing about the Alps

The Alpes 2030 Winter Olympics mnemonic is competently made and entirely interchangeable. That's not a design failure. Here's the decision that went missing.

#brand strategy#clarity#rebranding

You don't have a design problem

Most businesses don't have a design problem, they have a clarity problem. Why rebrands change nothing, and a quick test for what you've actually decided.